The Cost to Save the World
by antonm1107
Summary: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind and Nature. These are the five Elements that govern our world. These are the five elements that will save theirs. Cover image by Nocive (Not on this site or Deviantart)
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon.

* * *

_Must you really kill her?_

**There is no other way for a human to come to our world.**

_Then why don't you pick another? Someone who is already fated to die_

**As much as you treasure your petty morality, remember that we can't afford to take chances. Claire is one of the few people who can ensure our survival.**

_Yes, but aren't there any others we can use? Claire Torch isn't our only candidate, you know? Julie Ember is fated to die today as well, and she is just as viable a candidate as Claire._

**I'm surprised, Giratina. You are the lord of Ghosts, are you not? I had thought you would support the death of another.**

_The legends of those down below often distort the truth, Arceus. You of all people should know that._

**Indeed I do.**

_You didn't answer the question, Arceus. Why must you kill Claire when there are others who could take her place?_

**Giratina, you would be better off not knowing. Just know that it's the only way to guarantee the survival of the Pokémon world.**

* * *

When Claire awoke, she could tell immediately that something was wrong. Through her window, she could see light coming from the kitchen downstairs, and a familiar scent permeated the room. She took a quick glance at the clock on the wall; 1 a.m., it read.

The girl shot up immediately, keeping a tight hold on her blanket. She breathed deeply through her nose, and her blood ran cold as she recognized the scent. Smoke. Nightmarish memories flashed through her mind, images she never thought that she'd experience again.

"Mom?!" Claire yelled out, hoping - praying - that she was, in fact, simply being paranoid, that her mother had simply gotten home early and was making herself a midnight snack. The response of silence said otherwise.

She shook her head, trying to clear her mind. "Think," she mumbled to herself, "I can barely smell the smoke, and it's not very hot here, so the fire's probably only in the kitchen. I can get out of here, maybe call 911, and not have to deal with anything like last time"

Despite her attempts to reassure herself, she found herself gripping the blanket even harder. "O.K., I'm going to open the door and get out before anything gets worse." She made no move towards the door. "Right now." Again, she failed to do anything beyond stand still with her hands gripping her blanket.

The smell of smoke was starting to get stronger, and Claire knew that there was no point in stalling any longer. She gulped, straightened her back in a futile attempt to boost her bravado and opened the door.

She did not expect the sight before her.

The roar of flames deafened her, and fire engulfed the furniture that decorated the hallway, dancing around threateningly. How hadn't she noticed this?! Claire almost turned around and hid in her room, as though the flames would magically disappear in her absence, but she steeled herself and forced herself to run to the stairs with one hand over her nose, the other gripping her blanket.

Only she couldn't. As soon as she came close, fire rose up and created a wall, making her jump back. "Holy shit!" she exclaimed, turning and running back to her room. Not that it helped matters; when she arrived, fire had already begun devouring the door, effectively blocking her out. Had she been less preoccupied with survival, she might have questioned how quickly the flames spread, as though specifically denying her escape.

A fire began to make its way towards her, and she immediately ran to the bathroom, being careful to avoid getting burned. Flames surrounded her on all sides, including - or rather, especially - above, threatening to make her hair go aflame.

A wooden beam crashed onto the floor just as Claire closed in on the bathroom, cutting her off. "Shit!" Claire yelled. She looked back, and felt her heart race as the flames drew closer and closer. Her eyes began scanning the reachable area rapidly for something - anything - which she could use to help her escape, but she couldn't see anything of use.

Until, of course, they settled upon the blanket in her hand.

She immediately covered a part of the beam with the blanket, temporarily cutting off the flames, and jumped over it with her hands firmly gripping the cloth in her hands. They hurt immensely, but she ignored it, simply running for the bathroom as soon as she reached the other side.

As soon as she entered the bathroom, she slammed the door and locked it, as though it would somehow keep the flames at bay. She ran to the sink and turned it on, waiting for water to fall and give her a brief reprieve from the flames, and kicked the cabinet beneath it when it didn't.

Claire was finding it harder to breathe now; it must have been all of that exposure to smoke. She could still smell it, though no visible amount had gotten into the bathroom yet. She knew, however, that it would begin pouring in soon, and she'd only prolonged the inevitable by escaping into the bathroom.

"I'm dying in a bathroom," she giggled, as though she found the situation funny. She didn't, but Claire hoped that acting happy could somehow calm her down; make her final moments less painful. "I went to church every Sunday, worked hard to get decent grades, and actually did volunteer work because I wanted to, and now I'm going to die in a fucking bathroom."

She coughed heavily, and her futile attempt at a smile disappeared. Tears found their way down her cheeks and made their way down to the ground, but Claire wiped them away before they could hit the floor. "I'm going to die," she repeated in a whisper. She'd hoped that acknowledging her death would somehow make it more peaceful.

It only made it more agonizing.

**It's rather fascinating how your world is governed by only five elements rather than our seventeen. Nature, to create life and meaning; earth, to provide a vessel for life; fire, to destroy earth's creations; water, to protect life and vanquish the flames of destruction; and wind, to spread life and destruction both. Perhaps even more fascinating is how much your world can influence ours.**

**I apologize for my ramblings; I rarely get to share my musings with anybody other than Giratina. My name is Arceus - the 'god' of Pokemon. Welcome to the Dimensional Rift, a place - for lack of a better word - in which the line between different worlds disappears. I'm sure you have many questions - why you're speaking to a fictional being undoubtedly being one of them.**

**The reason is simple; I, and the rest of the Pokemon world, need your help.**

**Our world is dying, and only by having the elements of your world - nature, earth, fire, water and wind - can it survive. The five of you are each vessels for these elements, and thus, the five of you will be what saves us.**

**However, even if you had not died on your own planet, it would have been impossible to survive in your human bodies in the Pokemon world. Therefore, I have taken it upon myself to provide you with new forms to help you on your way.**

**I hope you find your new Pokemon forms to your liking.**

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**A/N: Thanks for reading this! I hope you guys enjoy my story, "The Cost to Save the World"! Rate and review, tell me what you think of this! To people who had reviewed before I rewrote the prologue, feel free to PM me or write anonymous reviews to tell me what you think of this version of the prologue!**


	2. Awakening

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, nor do I own Nintendo. Characters are of my own creation, though I did name Claire after Redfield. Even though she's not similar to Redfield at all. Yay.

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When Claire came to, the first thought that came through her mind was that the alarm didn't go off. She had to get up at 6 in the morning every day if she wanted to get to eat a healthy breakfast and get to school on time, and the sun was already so high up in the sky she wouldn't be surprised if it was noon already. Her second thought was that she might have been sick; she felt like she was burning up inside, and she had no idea why.

Her third thought was much simpler than the others, and one she voiced aloud; it came when she turned her head from the sky above and was greeted with the sight a huge, green serpent-like standing - STANDING - over her, as if it was waiting for her to awaken. "So, you finally woke up?"

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Claire scrambled to her feet as she yelled before backing away quickly. "Oh God, oh God..." The girl began hyperventilating as she backed away from this... This thing. What in the hell was it? Snakes didn't have limbs, they didn't stand like this, they didn't speak! "This has to be a dream. Yeah, that's it. It's a dream. It's a dream, and I'm going to wake up and remember that I didn't do my homework and argue with my mom as always and go to school and hand in my math homework and I'll tell my friends about this dream, this messed up standing snake thing and WHY AM I NOT WAKING UP?!" Claire shrieked again.

"Jesus Christ, snap out of it!" The serpent thing said.

"No, no, no, you're not real, this isn't _fucking_ real. Snakes don't have limbs, they don't talk, they aren't even supposed to be here. I - I'm in my house, and when I open my eyes this thing will disappear and I'll be home again. Yeah." Claire forced herself to calm down and listened to her breath steady. She looked down and closed her eyes, willing the serpent to go away. And when she opened them again, she saw reddish-brown paws in the dirt where her hands should have been.

* * *

When Claire finally took a break from screaming and calmed down enough to contemplate her situation, she noted that she seemed to be in a grassy clearing surrounded by trees. There was a small body of water in the center of the clearing, and she and the serpent were standing at its grassy shores. The trees that surrounded them seemed to make up a forest, and the canopy was so thick that the ground around the clearing seemed to be a pitch black. It made her feel vulnerable, as though something could come into the clearing at any time and rip her, limb from limb.

"You alright? I mean, you've finally stopped screaming and all..." Claire nearly jumped when the serpent started speaking; she had spent so long listening to only her own shrieking voice - nearly ten minutes, in fact - that she had forgotten that something else was there with her. The serpent visibly flinched, as if expecting Claire to return to her fit of screaming, but relaxed when she didn't. "My name's Kyle Greene. You?"

"I... I'm fine. Oh, I mean Claire. Claire Torch." Claire tried - and failed - to put on a smile. The serpent - Kyle, he said his name was - nodded before sighing and sitting down on the ground. "Erm... Kyle? Where am I? And what are you, exactly?" Claire asked tentatively, afraid of offending the strange, foreign creature.

"Y'know, I was planning to ask you the same thing, but it seems as though we're in the same boat. I'm a human too." Claire blinked in surprise. "I was hanging out with my friends when some snake came up to me and bit me with no warning whatsoever. The last thing I remember before waking up was riding in an ambulance... And that void thing, of course." Kyle added as an afterthought. "Then I woke up, roamed around the nearby forest for about half an hour and then found this place. The Pokemon World is screwed up; it's like God made this place while on an acid trip."

Claire smiled and tried not to be offended. "So... How long were you waiting for me to wake up?"

"I have no idea. It's pretty hard to grasp time in this place." Kyle yawned, somewhat fatigued by his travels in the forest. "There were five of us in that void, right? I wonder where the other three are." Kyle sighed and stood up. "How about we get going, fox girl? Arceus wanted us to do something, right? We may as well do it instead of sit around on our asses."

"Fox Girl?" Claire tilted her head in confusion before realizing that a fox - a Vulpix, if her knowledge of Pokemon was accurate - was probably her new form. "Wait a minute, Arceus didn't tell us what to do at all! And why should we work for him anyway?"

Kyle began walking in the direction of the forest, his back turned to Claire. "We may as well do something, right? If we explore, maybe you could get used to your new body, and we can find out what we're doing here in the first at the very least, we could find the other guys in that void. C'mon, Claire, let's get going."

"Fine!" Claire looked down at her paws and tentatively took a step forward. There; her first step forward as a Pokemon. She began walking somewhat hesitantly, though she didn't have any trouble with this. Perhaps, she thought, leaving this place means that I give up on my human life. On my transformation. Am I really willing to do this?

"Come on, Claire! Hurry up!" Kyle was already near the edge of the forest, shouting at Claire from afar. The fox looked up and focused on him before running as fast as her feet would allow her. She felt the wind blow past her face, even though she knew that there wasn't any wind at all, and ran much faster than she once could. Faster than any human could, in fact.

And she loved it.

A/N: Thanks for reading this, guys! Hope you like it! I'm sorry I can't write much more than a thousand words, but eh. There you go.  
On another note, special thanks to Canadian Sasquatch, for motivating me to keep on making this even though I had pretty much given up on it, and thank you pmdroleplay, the roleplay site that keeps me up at night, inspires me and helps me procrastinate! And thank you, readers, again!

PS: I may go back to the prologue and make some minor edits. I was planning to for a while, but figured that it wasn't really fair to do so, considering that it would go back to the first page even though no content would be added.


	3. The Forest

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN POKEMON. EXCUSE ME WHILE I CRY A RIVER BECAUSE OF THIS.

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"Claire?! Claire?!"  
"Ma'am , we're going to have to tell you to calm down and back away from the premises."  
"Calm down?! My daughter is in there! CLAIRE?!"  
"Miss, just breathe and stay calm. Our men are doing all they can to help your daughter, and the paramedics are on thei- Ma'am! If you keep acting erratically, I will use force."  
"No! I have to know that my baby's alright!"  
"Calm dow- look, I'm going to ask you some simple questions, alright? What's your name?"  
"Jessica. Jessica Torch."  
"Good, now, you got any hobbies Jessica?"  
"I just wanna see Claire!"  
"Just cooperate! How am I supposed to calm you down if you don't calm the fu- look, the firefighters are coming down with her. Don't worry, she's going to be safe."  
"Claire, baby! Claire, are you OK? Claire? She's... She's not breathing... WHY ISN'T SHE BREATHING?! YOU SAID SHE'D BE ALRIGHT!"

* * *

"Well." Kyle struggled to focus on the dead purple snake-like creature that lay on the floor in the dim light. His hand gripped a bloodied red stick, and in spite of his calm tone his wide eyes made it clear that he was still freaked out. "Shit, at least this thing resembles an animal, right?" Claire nodded, still mute from fear. "Not those weird egg thingies, right?" Another nod. "Should we get going?" Again Claire simply nodded and started walking in a random direction.

The exhilaration of being such a fast and agile creature had long since passed, ever since the duo found themselves face to face with a strange purple floating ball roughly fifteen minutes before, one that kept saying "Koffing" over and over. And indeed, it had left them coughing from the putrid smell, even after Kyle had grabbed a stick and rammed it through its 'skull'. That incident was still fresh in both of their minds, and it didn't help that a few other enemies had also attacked them unexpectedly; a group of strange bouncing eggs and the aforementioned purple snake. These strange monsters, coupled with the dim light of the forest and the occasional calls of 'Pokemon', made for a fairly - that is to say, extremely - terrifying experience.

Kyle followed Claire, not bothering to suggest that they clean themselves again; it would be impossible to get the blood off without a bath of water nearby. "Y'know, I seem to remember something about Pokemon having elements. Wouldn't it be awesome if we could just use those? I mean, imagine just burning these motherfuckers before they get close. We wouldn't have any reason to be scared if we could, right?" Claire faltered at the idea of burning something, but quickly regained her composure as she walked on. "Just think about it. Another one of those snakes comes near us? BAM, burnt to death! Another purple ball of putrid? Maybe it'll smell better burnt!" Claire slowed down considerably now. "What's wrong?"

"Let's not talk about fire. Please?" Kyle opened his mouth to ask why, but stopped when he saw Claire looking at him. She was staring at him almost pleadingly, and she seemed to be trying and failing to suppress the tears in her eyes from rolling to the floor. Kyle nodded wordlessly, and the two went back to wandering aimlessly.

"Still," Kyle continued, careful not to move the subject back to fire, "Last I checked, Pokemon had all of these powers, right? Like, water-based powers or psychic powers. Shouldn't we have them too?" He looked down at his flap-like arms which looked almost too thin to be holding a stick, frowning slightly. "I don't think I'd be able to last long if the stick broke. Do you think you could help fight? Like, tackle people?"

"Sure." Kyle opened his mouth to say something more, but found himself unable to find anything to talk about. The two continued onwards in silence.

* * *

Not far away, a small, gray bird whose head seemed too big for its body flew above her orange squirrel-like companion, shrieking in joy. "Flying is _awesome_!" She yelled at the top of her voice, startling the many spherical primates up above. "Seriously, Sam, you should try this!" She dove down quickly, landing just in front of 'Sam'.

"Alexandria, I've told you five times already, my name's Samuel, not Sam. get it right." He rubbed his forehead in annoyance - and perhaps with a twinge of envy. "Besides, I'm not a bird like you. I'm a..."

"A Buizel, _Sam_. Almost the best water Pokemon in my opinion, second only to Totodile." She turned her back to him, spreading her wings again, though she didn't take flight just yet. "Jeez, it's like you don't know anything about Pokemon at all!"

"That's because I don't. I'm sixteen years old; I'm too old for Pokemon, and I've had too many things to do at school to do play video games at all." The 'Buizel' frowned. "How old are you, by the way?"

"I'm eleven! Just turned last month!" The girl jumped into the air and hovered playfully. "Man, are all teenagers as boring as you? Am I gonna be as boring as you when I grow older?"

"You wouldn't be _boring_; you'd just be able to... Appreciate things that you find boring now," Samuel replied as he walked past the little featherball. "If you don't stop just hovering there, you'll get left behind."

"Fine." Alex mumbled as she dropped to the floor and followed the squirrel thing on foot. "Sam... When will we be able to go home?"

The Buizel stopped cold, his eyes closed as memories of his death flashed through his mind. The question bounced through his mind again and again, and Samuel couldn't answer the question. Not that he could let Alex know that. "I'm sure we'll go back as soon as we're done with whatever 'Arceus' wants us to do." The duo went onwards in silence, the elephant in the room more apparent than ever.

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Alright, guys, time to review my rarely-updated story! What did you guys think? Don't give me that "Niec, gimme moar" bull, give me some honest-to-God constructive criticism. Negative criticism especially; I want to know where I'm bad so that I may mutilate it so that it may someday become vaguely good, or at least nonexistent.


	4. Monster

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. If I owned it, I would undoubtedly replace everything I didn't like with Missingno. so be thankful for this fact.

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_"This is your fault!"_  
_"Sharon, I know that you're still mourning, but do you really think that you should be pointing finge-"_  
_"If you hadn't been taking him diving all the time, he wouldn't have... He..."_  
_"Honey, come on. He was my son too. But we have to get through this together; he wouldn't want to see us argue over his death."_  
_"He didn't die painlessly, Jason. He suffocated to death after being bitten by a shark. You should have been there to... To..."_  
_"I know. And I'm sorry, but-"_  
_"But what? You taught him all about this diving bullshit, and now he's dead! This is your fault!"_

* * *

"What did you do?" Samuel asked as he and Alex ran away from it.

"How should I know? I was just taking a rest and this guy jus-Watch out!"

"Oh, shit!" Samuel jumped to the left quickly and a flurry of leaves went past where his head used to be. "How could you piss off something so big?!"

"I said I don't know!" Alex cried as she flew higher up to escape the monstrous dinosaur-like creature chasing the duo. It flapped its green, leaf-like wings and began flying after her.

"It can fly?! How is it able to fly?!"

"It's a tropius, of course it can fl-Oof!" The creature sent another flurry of leaves at Alex, sending her to the ground. "Samuel!"

"Alex!" Samuel stopped running and stared as his friend landed hard on the ground, the huge dinosaur hovering near her. "Oh, no you don't, you son of a bitch!" Almost without thinking, the Buizel grabbed hold of a stone on the ground and threw it at the monster's eye, missing tremendously. "Don't you dare hurt my friend!" He yelled at the top of his voice, picking up another item from the ground and throwing it again, this time striking true.

* * *

Claire stopped moving and perked up upon hearing a loud roar of pain not too far away, followed by a much more high-pitched scream. "What was that?"

"Don't know, don't care. I'm not going near anything that can roar that loud." Kyle's hands were still gripping the stick hard in spite of - or perhaps because of - the fact that that almost nothing had attacked them in more than half an hour. "For all we know, it's a freaking dinosaur."

Claire nodded and continued following Kyle, though her mind stayed preoccupied with the scream. She could have sworn that there was a sort of... Human quality imbued in it. "Maybe there's another human there. The scream sounded human, sort of."

"I'm not taking my chances on intuition." Nonetheless, Kyle veered in the sound's direction.

_"Holy shit!"_ Another yell echoed through the forest, this time a distinctly human one.

"That is not intuition. There's a human there." Claire immediately began running as quickly as she could in its direction, determined to meet whoever spoke.

"Claire, wait up!" Kyle ran after the fox, not quite able to keep up with its speed. "Dammit, I'm a legged snake! I can't go as quickly as you!" Kyle yelled after her as Claire disappeared in the trees, bushes and distance. He slowed down, sighing. "Fine, then! I'll follow after you, then. Or something." He spent one last second looking in Claire's direction before cautiously following her trail, watching for any monsters that could attack. "God damn it..."

* * *

"Holy shit!" The 'Tropius' was now thrashing about in pain and anger, blood falling from the now-empty socket. The bird lying below it was screaming as bloody chunks fell to the ground. Sam took a second to try to comprehend what had happened before grabbing Alex from the ground and hiding in some bushes a few feet away. "What in the hell?!" he said in a harsh whisper.

"I... I think you threw a blast seed at it." Alex said, still recuperating from getting attacked. The Tropius' blood was splattered against her feathers, and small red chunks of what seemed to be its eye lay on the ground. "Oh God, I'm going to be sick..."

"Alex, get a hold of yourself. We're going to have to get out of here before that monster gets its bearings." Samuel glanced at the beast. "Can you still fly?"

"Um... Yeah, I think so. That razor leaf didn't do much damage, especially since I'm a Starly." Alex stood up, trying to put on a brave face though Samuel noticed that beneath the blood, her feathered face was tinted a light shade of green. "Alright, what should we do?"

"I guess we just sneak out. That monster - Tropius, or whatever - won't be able to find us right now, but when he gets his bearings he's going to kill us as soon as we show our heads." Samuel began sneaking into the depths of the forest. "C'mon, Alex, hurry up."

"Alright." Alex hovered into the air for a moment, simply watching the Tropius thrash about before turning back to follow Samuel.

"Ah!" And immediately turned back just in time to see a reddish-brown, bushy tailed fox fly against a tree, having just been hit by the crazed Tropius. It was wincing, and it seemed to be gritting its teeth.

"Sam, we have to go back! There's a Vulpix there getting attacked by the Tropius!"

"No, Alex, we're not going back. This is our last chance to get away from that thing, and I am not going to waste it." Samuel continued walking onward, expecting - hoping - that Alex would follow suit.

* * *

Claire gritted her teeth - apparently, it alleviated pain for some people, but she didn't think it was working. "Ow..." She looked up at the monster standing above her, who had stopped thrashing about, instead opting to stare at her with its remaining eye. "Oh God..."

"Hey! You big butt-face!" Both Claire and her assailant turned to see a small puffball of a bird hovering in the air, fanning her wings as much as possible. "Why don't you pick on somebody your own size?" She focused the dinosaur, flapping her wings so fast that they were almost invisible. It was as if the creature was trying to create a gust of wind.

"What're you doing?!" Claire shouted at the bird. "Get away from it!" The bird paused upon hearing those words - a pause that was quickly exploited by the beast. Before either the bird or Claire knew what was happening, a flurry of leaves flew into the hovering creature, sending her back to the ground.

"Alex!" A small, orange squirrel-like creature ran from seemingly nowhere, seething with anger. "Stay the hell away from her!" The creature picked up a small object from the ground and threw it at the monster, though it missed completely. The monster raised its foot above the orange mammal, ready to stomp it.

"No!" Claire yelled; these guys couldn't die, they were the first humans she found since she met Kyle. A red tint overlapped her vision, and before she knew it, flames of enormous sizes erupted from within her, setting the monster aflame. Its tortured wails and screams echoed throughout the forest, and before long the beast lay on the forest floor, charred to the point that its blackened limbs could break apart with a simple push. Oddly, the trees surrounding it were left untouched by the monstrous beast.

Not that Claire noticed. Her vision had lost its tint, and all that she could think of were the flames. The fear it must have felt when it caught sight of her flames. The pain that the monster must have gone through as it breathed its last.  
The way it reflected her own final moments just hours before.  
She didn't notice the words of thanks that the mammal and the bird had given her, nor their odd looks as she stayed unresponsive. She could only stay focused on her own despair as her sobs filled the air.

* * *

So, how did I do? What did you think of my perspective jumping; did you think it was well done or confusing? Do you think I conveyed the emotion of the event correctly? C'mon, my readers, give me your opinions! Even if said opinions are negative. _Especially_ if said opinions are negative.

EDIT: Edited the last sentence in a sort of retcon move.


	5. The Angels

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. :(

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_"Ever since our house burned down two years ago, she had been afraid of fires. Couldn't even stand going to a birthday party; she was so afraid that the candles would fall to the ground and burn the whole place up. I knew that, I protected her, but... Why couldn't I protect her from this?"_

_"Jessica, this was no fault of your own. Remember that."_

_"But father, it was! I should have been there to protect her... To keep her safe! It's because of me that she's dea-"_

_"Jessica. Remember, 'the Lord gave, and the Lord takes away.' Whatever the reason, the Lord has taken her away from you, and you must accept this. Just be thankful that she could live the good, devout life she lived, and know that she is up above now, resting with the angels."_

* * *

Kyle picked himself up from the ground, clutching his stomach in pain. His stick lay on the ground, split in half by the crying red fox that had just run past. "Ah, what the hell?!" He shouted, looking at the fox as she ran away into the forest, a trail of tears following behind her. "Claire?!" The serpent yelled at his companion, worry pervading his features. Immediately, Kyle began running after his friend.

And stopped upon realizing that he had just stepped on something. Something that made him nauseous without even knowing what it was. The legged serpent hesitantly looked down and regretted it instantly; what appeared to be something's eye lay beneath his foot, surrounded by a pool of blood. "Holy shit!" He shouted, jumping back.

It was only then that Kyle really began to notice his surroundings. Unlike much of the explored forest, the sun was clearly visible overhead, making the destruction even more apparent. Bloody chunks lay scattered on the ground next to the corpse of a green dinosaur, and trees lay uprooted all around. "What the hell happened?" Kyle muttered. He considered investigating, but shook his head; he needed to catch up to Claire; the carnage, as intriguing as it was, was secondary to that.

"Hello." Kyle turned around quickly upon hearing the voice behind him.. He clenched his hand, forgetting for a moment that the stick which he had been using as a weapon for the last hour had been crushed under Claire's foot. "Relax, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm Samuel, a human. You're human, right?"

"...Yeah." Kyle eyed the creature before him wearily. Samuel was an orange mammal with very ruffled fur. It had one fin on each elbow and two white-tipped tails which currently lay on the ground, but besides these irregularities Kyle thought that it was similar to a squirrel.

The serpent looked back, hoping to catch a glimpse of Claire between the trees, but the fox had disappeared. "Shi-look, I know that finding another human is a big thing and all, but I really need to catch up to my friend."

"The fox?" Samuel asked, looking into the trees. "That's your friend? She saved me and Alexandrea from the dinosaur before running off crying. Alex went on after her to try to talk to her, I think."

"Y'know, for someone who's just been attacked by a fucking dinosaur, you seem a little... composed." Kyle said suspiciously, still eyeing the trees behind him. "Anyway, I'd ask how she saved you, but I really need to go and catch up to Claire." With that, the legged serpent turned back and began running in the opposite direction, planning to roam the forest aimlessly again; it had worked well enough for him in the past hour.

"Wait!" The squirrel began running after Kyle. "Shouldn't we... stick together? You know, if Arceus is to be believed, there are only five of us humans; we should stick together, shouldn't we?"

"Go ahead and follow me if you want; I couldn't care less. I'm just gonna look for Claire." Kyle said nonchalantly as he continued deeper and deeper into the forest. Samuel hesitated, unsure if leaving the last place his companion had seen him at would be a good idea, before following behind him.

* * *

_Memories flashed through her mind randomly. Her cheerleading with her friends. Her English teacher commending her for doing well. Singing hymns during mass. Small, unspecific memories. Mundanities. The sort of memories she'd never have again._

_The fire. Not the one that she had died in, but one just as horrific. The first one. She was in a bedroom - she recognized it as her own. The once-pink walls were tinted red in the light of the flames. Screams echoed through the room, punctuated with random fits of coughing - hers._

_A dead creature lay on the ground, scorched. A pool of blood formed slowly beneath the motionless giant. Was this real? Did she cause this? Tears fell down the monster's dead eyes and into the pool, diluting it. It came closer, or perhaps she went closer - she couldn't tell. She looked down and stared into the pool, staring at the figure it reflected. Fear pulsed through her veins, but she couldn't look away from __**the smiling, bloody mouthed monster before her.**_

* * *

A body of water lay in the middle of a grassy clearing surrounded by trees, one Claire recognized as the place where she awoke. The sun hung high in the sky, though it seemed to have dipped quite a bit since she had last been there. The fox waited for a full minute, staring at the scene before her before realizing that this wasn't a memory, but reality.

Not that it brought any relief. The flashbacks may have ended, but she had not left the nightmarish world she was now in. A world where purple spheres floated above the ground, spewing toxic gas, where flames burst from the bellies of foxes and brought forth unbearable agonized cries. A world where God had no hold - or if He did, where He made no attempt at wearing even a flimsy façade of benevolence.

Before Claire could sink back into despair, something caught her eye - something sitting on the other side of the pond with its feet in the water. It was a bit too far for Claire to make out its specific features, but as far as the fox could tell, it was a horned bipedal creature with a red underbelly and green skin, though this particular shade of green seemed to be darker and dirtier than Kyle's.

She stood up and began walking around the pond and towards it, glad for a distraction from her misery. It did likewise. Claire didn't know whether this was a smart thing to do, walking towards an alien who was likely to be just as hostile as the other Pokemon in the forest, but the fox felt inexplicably safe; she felt a sort of resonance between herself and the creature on the other side of the pond.

They stopped about five meters away from each other, almost in sync. Claire took a moment to observe the creature in detail, as she was sure it was doing to her. The green reptilian creature had triangular, black markings below its eyes and two black, diamond-shaped 'dents' on either side of its red underbelly, and a horn the same color as its skin protruded from its forehead. It eyed her with red eyes that would be menacing on a monster, but were simply solemn on its own sad face.

Claire and the creature stared at each other in silence, neither willing to break the silence, though neither of them knew why. A minute passed, then two. It was at the start of the third one that Claire finally gained the courage to break the silence. "Hello."

"Hi," it replied in a surprisingly high, but unmistakably masculine voice. Another long moment of silence ensued, though not quite as long as the previous one. "Are you human too?" It asked on the thirtieth second.

"Yes. My name's Claire Torch." Claire smiled tentatively at the creature. "You?"

"Max Stone." He smiled back at the fox, and something told Claire that it had been the first time he'd truly smiled like this in a very long time.

Somewhere within her, Claire felt hope returning to her like a long needed bout of fresh air.

* * *

First chapter I've done without checking the whole thing with my unofficial beta reader, CanadianSasquatch (whose fanfics you should definitely read). In fact, I only checked the first half with him.

Anyway, review. Please. I'll keep writing this regardless of the amount of reviews I get, but unless you want my story to end up being a pile of dog shit in the middle of a crowded street, I need some constructive criticism and helpful observations to help me evolve my writing style. What did you think of the memory segment, and the glimpses of Earth you get at the beginning of each chapter? Come on, help me out here. I've got eight reviews only, seven of which were made for the prologue and one of which was made for The Forest. Nothing for any of the later chapters. Please, guys and girls, help me out here.


	6. Remorse

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. Original characters belong to me (unless the law says otherwise, in which case CURSE YOU LAW!)

* * *

_"Kyle never did smoke one of these things, did he?"_

_"Nah; he said that he didn't want stuff to fuck with his brain."_

_"God, he was such a pussy, wasn't he? Didn't even drink more than a can 'o beer. Said that he didn't want liver cancer or some shit like that."_

_"What a fuckin' pussy."_

_"God, I miss him."_

* * *

"Do you attract Pokemon, Kyle? Me and Alexandrea didn't encounter nearly as many of these creatures as we've seen so far."

Kyle shrugged with his free arm, ignoring the pained gurgles of the impaled purple ball at his feet. "Fuck if I know." The limbed serpent pulled the stick out of the 'Koffing' and kicked the purple spheric creature into the trees. "Hey, why don't you fight? You've got opposable thumbs - or something like that, anyway - so pick up a stick and help me out next time."

"I don't know anything about fighting, though. I tend to avoid conflict, so I've never actually needed to protect myself"

"That's bullshit; you made that dinosaur's eye explode, didn't you?"

Samuel grimaced at the memory; he doubted that he'd be able to sleep without replaying that scene over and over in his dreams. "That was luck. I didn't know that thing - the 'blast seed,' Alex called it - would explode. I was just planning to distract it so that Alexandrea could get away."

"You'll have to learn, then. You may as well learn now, while we're facing eggs and balls of putrid rather than dinosaurs." The serpent threw his stick at the orange mammal and smirked as he nearly dropped it.

"Jeez, at least give me a warning before throwing a weapon at me," Samuel mumbled as he examined the bloodied stick in his hand. "How'd you learn to fight, anyhow? It seems like you're used to this sort of thing."

"Baseball." Kyle didn't bother to say more, instead bending down to search the floor for another weapon.

Samuel opened his mouth to point out the fact that baseball generally did not involve the stabbing and killing of creatures, but stopped when something caught his eye. "Hey, I think that thing's human," he said, pointing at a dark gray puppy-like creature.

"Whawaswha?" Kyle turned to face his companion, confused.

"Right there." Kyle looked in the direction that Samuel pointed at; it was difficult to see it, what with all of the trees blocking the way, but Kyle managed to find it. Its face was covered with pitch black fur, which emphasized its yellow, almost glowing eyes. With the right expression, the creature could be almost terrifying in the dim light. As it was, though, the creature seemed docile and cautious.

"It's roaming, kind of. Seems sort of cautious, almost afraid, like it doesn't belong. Kind of like you and Alexandrea were." Samuel began walking towards it, leaving his stick forgotten on the ground. "Hey!" he called out. The canine tensed, as if ready for attack.

"Jesus, what are you doing?!" Kyle ran after his companion, "Don't shout like that! We don't know if that thing's human or not, and all you're doing is getting attention!"

Samuel sighed. "It's better to alert people that you're there instead of just tapping on their arms, right? I just don't want to startle him; you were primed to attack when I said hi, and I don't want this guy to actually hit me."

"Yeah, but that's assuming that the thing's actually a human, which you don't know."

The orange mammal frowned at the serpent. "I trust my judgement, Kyle. Both you and Alex turned out to be human, and I'd bet tha-"

That was the moment when a large, gray wolf lunged and pinned Samuel to the ground.

* * *

Three moons, he had spent lost. Three moons spent alone, hiding from the many predators of the forest, searching for his mother, and he'd almost given up. A Buizel called out to him, and he knew that only powerful, arrogant Pokemon warned their prey of their coming. There would be no way of surviving an encounter with such a monster. It was somewhat terrifying, knowing that the end was nigh.

Just when he thought all was over, though, as the Buizel began walking towards him, his mother arrived. He didn't know how she found him, but she did. She came to protect him, keep him in safety's arms as she had before he began counting the moons he spent alone.

She was pinning down the creature that had called out to him now, protecting him as she did before he'd gotten lost. He cheered her on, jumping in joy as she snapped her teeth at the orange monster's throat. Finally, he was no longer alone.

Green vines erupted from the other one; the Snivy. They pushed his mother away from her prey and she landed on the floor with a crash, but he wasn't worried. She'd faced many difficult opponents, and she would have no trouble with this creature.

She stood up, snarling viciously. Protectively. The Snivy had done the same, and now backed away slowly, bending down, but it was hardly of note; she'd get him regardless, and when she'd defeated these monsters, she'd stay with him again. He yelped, cheering his mother on as she lunged at the green monster, making sure that he'd never hurt him or her again.

She landed on the side; the Snivy had just swung a stick and warded her off for a moment. Sparks of worry lit in his mind, but he shook them away; she'd be fine. She'd just found him, after all. It wasn't like she'd leave him. Nonetheless, he walked closer to the conflict, his eyes trained on his mother.

She turned her head back for a second, locking eyes with him. She made a quiet whining noise, the sort she always made to reassure him, and any doubts he had disappeared. She wouldn't leave him alone again; she'd make it out of this, she'd make sure that he was safe. There wasn't any way she couldn't.

And then the orange one brought his own stick down on her. She yelped in pain, but the Buizel simply brought it back up and hit her again. And again. Her breathing sped up, then slowed, then eventually stopped, and by the end of it her face wasn't visible beneath the blood that covered it.

But she wasn't dead. No, no, no, she wouldn't die after something as simple as this, not after these long three moons of being alone.

She'd only just found him.

* * *

Kyle stared at the body of the beast; it was a wolf with a gray lower half and a black upper half, though it was fairly hard to tell beneath the blood. "Fucking hell, Sam, what the shit was that about you not knowing how to fight?!"

Samuel panted heavily, blood splatters decorating his white underbelly. "Heat of... Heat of the moment," he said between breaths. "Oh... Christ, that was..." He bent over and gagged, his hands holding his stomach.

"Chee! Chee!" The small pup that Samuel had noticed earlier ran towards the wolf's body, whining mournfully and seemingly unaware of the duo. It nudged the wolf's arm in vain, crying uncontrollably. "Poochey..."

Kyle gripped his stick all the tighter, his eyes trained on the dog. "Well, it looks like your judgement is fucked," he said humorlessly. "We should go."

"Oh, Christ, is that its mother?!" Samuel stumbled backwards, staring at the mourning puppy.

"I said we should go." Kyle's began walking away, forcibly tearing his eyes away from the scene. Samuel hesitated for a few seconds before following behind, only barely keeping himself together.

Behind the retreating two, a Poochyena mourned its mother alone.

* * *

**A/N: So, how did you like that? Was that chapter fun? :P  
So, thanks Canadian Sasquatch for your support and your help in Beta-ing this, thank you Clarilune for the many reviews you posted, thank you me for being awesome, screw you examinations for preventing me from writing this sooner. So, what did you think of the Pooch POV scene? Rate and review, guys!  
In other news, I've rewritten the prologue, so go and check it out. Please?**


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